In what seems to be a recurring story services on the West Midlands Metro have been suspended through St Paul’s again after damage to the overhead wires. This is by no means the first time that there has been overhead line damage in this area (including some earlier this year) but despite previous repairs it would seem there remain issues here.
The first reports that trams could not run through St Paul’s were received at 1245 on Wednesday 9th June with a simple tweet stating “Due to damage to the overhead lines, trams are unable to stop between Library at Centenary Square and Winson Green”. As is usual during disruption of this sort on the Metro there was ticket acceptance put in place with the number 74 bus.
Tram services continued to run from Winson Green north to Wolverhampton St George’s (with the bridge demolition works at Bilston having been completed on time).
After repairs were completed and suitable testing took place a full service was able to resume from 1900.
There is a tram operations in China that uses hydrogen instead of electricity. Surely this could be an option for Midland Metro as there would be no need for overhead wires.
I know national express the previous operator is going to use hydrogen buses later in 2021 to mid 2022.